The flawed mobile OS model

Reading this morning in the blogs about Android 2.3 rumors, I can't help but sigh with the realization that it doesn't really matter to me whether Android 2.3 is released soon or not. Nor does it really matter what new features it contains. In the end, it isn't up to me to decide whether or not I'd like to take advantage of the update. The flawed business model of mobile OS is in the way. In all reality, I may never see that update and I will have nothing to say about that.

Can you imagine if, in order to update Windows 7 on my laptop, I had to wait for that update to go through Dell and then Comcast? Yet that is exactly what the mobile OS industry has provided us. They've provided us with a model where in order for me to do an "Android Update" which should be as simple as a Windows 7 "Windows Update" instead I have to wait on the bureaucracies of Sprint and my phone manufacturer. What a disappointment.

Yes, I know root the phone. But I don't consider that to be a viable option for the mainstream, non-techie consumer. And it shouldn't take that in the first place.

Carriers need to back out of the experience all together and at least leave this between the consumer and the cell manufacturer.

 

The carrier's controlling the OS updates have nothing to do with phone subsidies. Phone subsidies are all about locking in service contracts. There is no revenue link to controlling OS updates. Unless of course, you are suggesting that carriers are artificially limiting access to OS updates in order to get you to update phones quicker.

 

I would agree that the phone manufacturer probably can't be out of the loop like they are in the PC marketplace. However, the carriers are also adding their "touches" to the OS as well and that is where I think it getting ridiculous. My Android Market for example has a Sprint tab in it. I've got Sprint "this app" and Sprint "that app" on my phone. Those are all added to the OS updates.

It was Sprint that announced no Froyo for the HTC Hero and the Samsung Moment to my knowledge - not HTC and Samsung.

I think it is clear that the carriers are the final gatekeepers of the OS upgrades.

 

Yes, good point. I can see how the phone manufacturers need to be in the middle of the Google - Consumer relationship. The carriers controlling it - I am having a little bit harder time with.